International Conference on Education Technology and Economic Management (ICETEM 2015)

Design on Automatic Spraying Robot System based on PC-PLC Network

Control
Jian Li
Nanjing College of Chemical Technology, 210048, Nanjing, China

Abstract: With continuous industry upgrading and rapid economic transformation, all kinds of
industrial robots are widely applied into various enterprises in China. In particular, important type
of industrial robot (i.e. spray painting robot) is widely applied into the coating production process.
Viewed from the current situation, however, it is very difficult for spray painting robot to be
accepted by small and medium-sized enterprises. The main reason is that it is featured by
relatively high price, strong technicality, difficulty in adapting to the production environment and
weak reaction capacity toward the market. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a kind of
universal type spray painting robot with low costs and realize network control.
Key words: PC-PLC, network control, automatic spraying robot system, design
With rapid development of national economy, practical improvement can be made to labor
concentrated industry by practical development of high and new technology and improvement to
the automation level of the manufacturing industry. This has already become the only route for
China’s economic transition and adjustment of industrial structure. A market foundation is laid for
application and development of industrial robot by improving product quality, reducing cost
investment and promoting the acceleration of market reaction. In this paper, the author states the
design on automatic spray painting robot system based on PC-PLC network control.
I. Development State of Spray Painting Robot at Home and Abroad
In the end 1960s, Norwegian Trallfa Company invented the first spray painting robot in the world.
Up to now, foreign countries have already walked through about 50 years in the development
history of industrial robot spraying. They have relatively mature technologies. With continuous
improvement to automatic spray painting robot in performance, function and other aspects at
present, the spraying accuracy also reaches a very high level. Viewed from the world range,
relatively famous spray painting robot manufacturers mainly include German KUKA, Japanese
Yaskawa MOTOMAN and FANUC, French Staubli, Swiss ABB and American ADEPT. Among
all these famous manufacturers, ABB is the most famous in the world. ABB has considerable
valuable experiences in design and manufacturing of spray painting robot. Moreover, it also
masters abundant spraying technologies. Therefore, its products enjoy wide development markets.
In terms of the development of spray painting robot, China started relatively late. Moreover,
China is still in the initial stage with slow development. Upon efforts for many years, however,

© 2015. The authors - Published by Atlantis Press 191

China also made great progress in design and application of spray painting robot, no matter in
theoretical research or in product research & development. A complete system of robot design,
development and application was gradually formed. However, there are lots of needs for design
and application of small-sized spray painting robot in small-scale manufacturing enterprises.
II. Research on Structure and Control Method of Spray Painting Robot
(I) Mechanical structure of spray painting robot
Mechanical structure of spray painting robot is mainly used to meet outer elevation needs of
spraying products. According to different structures, it is complex for shape of outer elevation of
products. This proposes high requirements for flexibility of robot. Viewed from spraying accuracy,
covering area of work and spraying flexibility, five-degree movable joint and mixed type
mechanical structure should be adopted for spray painting robot. Mixed type robot is featured by
such advantages as high work precision, stable performance and strong flexibility. In terms of
spraying mode, rectangular coordinates are used to present three axes of X, Y and Z. The joint
type pattern is of two axes: P and R. Axis X is mainly used to track spraying object. Axis Y is
used for spraying at the vertical direction. Axis Z is mainly responsible for adjusting the distance
between spray gun and the object. Axes P and R are mainly used for all-dimensional and
multi-angle locating of spray gun. The main body of robot utilizes the controller to drive the
mechanical axis to work and promote its operation and make spray gun to reach the appointed
spraying position.
(II) Control structure of spray painting robot
Mainly with PC-PLC as the core, the control system of spray painting robot includes object
recognition, position control, safety protection, human-computer interface, network
communication control, master control and operating control. The control object includes two
parts: main body control and operating control over spraying object. At the same time, 5
mechanical axes are respectively controlled by 5 system drivers. Then, 5 systems are controlled
with the pattern of high speed pulse dispatching by utilizing high speed pulse output and
positioning control module of PLC. PC is mainly used to provide the operation interface of
man-machine interaction, set up parameters, transmit control instructions and supervise system
operation. PLC is the field controller of the system. It is mainly used to finish planning for
transmission path of upper computer, control the implementation of site and speed control by
5-axis motor according to control instructions and feedback information of sensor and promote
the motor to operate according to relevant requirements. Adjustment to the operating speed of
spraying object is mainly decided by spraying technology. PLC is used to control the transducer
and promote the motor to operate. Then, the spraying object is made to move stable by combining

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feedback information of the encoder. The system finishes connection between PC and PLC and
realizes full combination of PC man-machine operation and PLC good control mainly through
communication data line, so as to form the control process.
(III) Tracking and spraying object of spray painting robot
On industrial spraying field, assembly line operation is performed. The spraying object moves
with the hanger in the form of pendant. Therefore, spray painting robot must perform
synchronous movement with the spraying object. That is, motor is used to drive gears to move
and finish the movement of pendant. However, the photoelectric encoder should finish the
detection for operating speed of the motor. Then, the encoder feeds back obtained pulse to PLC.
After that, PLC meters the number of pulse according to unit time and works out the operating
frequency of motor. According to the operating frequency, PLC sends the tracked impulse
frequency to Axis X, so as to finish tracking of industrial robot for spraying object.
III. Hardware Design of Automatic Spray Painting Robot Control System
(I) Design of main circuit
Main circuit of spray painting robot is power supplied by a special power system, including UPS
regulated power supply. It is used to provide power of various kinds of movable units. In the
design process, the principle of guaranteeing power utilization safety of various modules should
be embodied. Moreover, breaker should be arranged at positions with probably over current.
Therefore, breaker should be added one by one for principal AC line and power supply of driver
in main circuit of the system. At the same time, PLC is provided with a functional module to
convert 220V AC to 24V DC. To effectively present PLC voltage instability caused by connection
of several devices requiring 24V DC to PLC, the functional module of converting 220V AC to
24V DC should be added in the main circuit, so as to provide power to other functional modules
requiring DC. PC-PLC network communication bus is used to collect real-time information and
monitor and operate various parts of the robot system. For safety and controllability of the overall
line and control over supply circuit switching of actuator, functional module of converting AC
into DC and others, the motion control card is used to finish the above control. Power switch
above the cabinet panel is used to control the action of motion control card. If the power switch is
closed, the contactor will be powered on, and the entire circuit will be powered on accordingly.
(II) Design of control circuit
Control circuit of spray painting robot is designed based on the control thought of PC-PLC. It is
featured by centralized operation, convenient configuration, flexible allocation, strong control
ability and rich control algorithms. According to spraying requirements, continuous control,
sequential control and batch processing control can be integrated together. Moreover, necessary

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special control algorithms can be conveniently added. Data is transmitted through communication
network between operating points. The entire system shares information under coordinative
operation, so as to obtain multi-function and optimized processing of the control system. Through
configuration software, software and hardware are configured according to different spraying
application objects, namely to determine connected relations between measurement and control
signals, select proper control rules from the control algorithms library, deploy from the graphics
library various monitoring and alarming pictures necessary for the formation of fundamental
figures and constitute necessary control operating system.
Control circuit is mainly composed of basic module, input & output module, communication
module and driver module. As the control circuit, the functional orientation of input and output
port is generally determined according to the value of each receiving and sending frequency.
Input point mainly includes high speed input point and universal input point. The former is
applicable to input of high-frequency signals such as encoder. High speed pulse input & output
point is mainly used to send impulse sequence and signal direction to driver. However, universal
input point is used for starting & stopping system and input of other switching values and switch
signals of various axes. Universal output point is applied into braking and outputting control
spray gun and system alarm switch.
IV. Software Design of Automatic Spray Painting Robot Control System
Trapezoid modularization is mainly used as the design thought of software design on control
system of spray painting robot. This software system is composed of 6 functional modules:
system parameter initialization module, spraying object movement speed detection & operation
module, 5-axis origin restoration module, positive spraying module, left-side spaying module and
right-side spraying module. The initialization module is mainly applied into zero clearing or
negative value of temporary storage parameters, some auxiliary relays and other operations, such
as the total number of spraying. The spraying object movement speed detection & operation
module includes two procedures: detection for movement frequency of spraying object and
calculation of tracking frequency of robot. Generally, Axis X is used to track the object and
provide data. The 5-axis origin restoration module is used for restoration procedure of returning
various axes to original location at the starting link. The origin restoration of various axes makes
it convenient for later route planning of robot. Front and left & right spraying modules are mainly
used to adjust coordination exercises of axes according to needs of corresponding modules. The
six modules are made to alternative operation through special relay and calculator. Designed
procedure is clear in logic and less in number of program.
Integration motion control instructions in PLC are used to adjust instructions and reach the

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purpose of controlling PLC pulse output mode. In case of special instructions, change is made to
modulating pulse bandwidth PWM instruction of set value with effective features. The reason is
that the sending period of this instruction input & output pulse can be changed according to the
set value. At the same time, the motor is adjusted to change the operating speed. It is extremely
appropriate for Axis X whose change speed needs to be controlled at real time by the spraying
object to be tracked. PLSR is an instruction attached with deceleration pulse output. Users can set
speed and time within the specified area through this instruction, making it convenient for
regulating the spraying time of speed axis and the tail spraying speed. As the moving speed of
Axis Y is fast during spraying motion, generated noise is also great accordingly. However, this
instruction can be used to effectively reduce the noise. The use of these instructions remarkably
simplifies writing of programs and makes it more convenient for motor control.
V. Conclusion:
According to control design methods of the system, automatic spray painting robot can be used to
spray relevant products and reach predicted requirements of tracking spraying. The design on
automatic spray painting robot system based on PC-PLC network control is featured by low
production costs and good system openness. It is the most appropriate to be widely applied and
promoted in small and medium-sized spraying enterprises.
Acknowledgments
This paper is the 2012 Jiangsu province university "Blue Project" excellent young backbone
teacher training project.
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